Tag: Hiking

Many day hikers head out to the mountains seeking adventure, and return with more than they bargained for. Ryan Mason, a fourth-year medical student at Brown University, thinks he knows why. Mason and other researchers from Brown studied surveys of hikers in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, and found […]

Creativity can flow from many things and places, but a new study suggests that one reliable source is a place that’s far away from everything, especially iPhones. The Salt Lake Tribune reports on research conducted at the University of Utah that found that backpackers scored 50 percent better on a […]

Two reasons technology belongs in the wilds: you can talk on your iPhone all day without annoying a soul; and it can save your life. Roy Wallack, the Los Angeles Times sports gadget guy, (and co-author of Barefoot Running Step by Step) kindly presents four new works of technology that […]

Do orthotics work? That's the question explored in this less than definitive piece by Gina Kolata of the New York Times. The first answer, from professors of biomechanics at two different universities, is "If they do work, we don't don't know how they work." The second, and perhaps more meaningful […]

People who enjoy the beauty of the great outdoors are more likely to have strong community values than those who identify with urban environments. That's the suggestion of research conducted at the University of Rochester, where, as reported in the Booster Shots Blog of the L.A. Times, scientists showed 370 […]

Why, Geezer must ask, would anyone want to climb the highest elevations in all 50 states? The question gets harder to answer when one considers that the high point of Florida is 345 feet above sea-level. On the other hand, or perhaps the same hand, the high point of Alaska […]

Walking, it seems, is not something that comes naturally to all of us. Some of us, a reported in this piece in the New York Times, do not use our stomach muscles as we should, forcing our backs to do more work than they were built for. Some of us […]

How easy is it to injure your feet? Easier than you want to know. This New York Times story about common foot injuries, mainly plantar fasciitis, and what to do about them cites a 2003 study done in Brussels that looked at the impact of running for 30 minutes a […]

Geezer always knew there was a reason he decided to stick with skis, rather than follow his wayward progeny into the land of snowboards. The Associated Press cites a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that determined that more people are hurt snowboarding than any other outdoor […]

What’s the difference between bouldering and rock climbing? As explained by Wikipedia, "bouldering is a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs so that a fall will not result in serious injury. It is typically practiced on large boulders or artificial man-made […]